From the article:

Like many of the other promoters at CinemaCon last week, The Anklercolumnist Richard Rushfield was handing out free swag. It was nothing fancy, just a pin that read “Block The Merger,” referring to the monumental unification of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery that is coming up for a vote this Thursday. But Paramount didn’t appreciate the gesture, and instead of ignoring it, pulled its advertising from The Ankler and told talent not to speak to their reporters. All that for a pin.

If this is the entertainment industry’s canary in the coal mine moment, that bird might already be on the floor of its cage. Paramount acting so quickly to punish a journalist that disagreed with the powers that be is a warning of the kind of management style that would control more than a third of the industry if the merger goes through.

After the saga this film has been through, part of me thinks everyone should go see it out of principle.

Also, it looks great.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/38527959

Last Thursday, the Tokyo District Court ruled that 39-year-old Wataru Takeuchi was guilty of violating Japanese law that prohibits the creation of “a new work by making creative modifications to the original while preserving its essential characteristics.” Takeuchi worked as administrator of a website that published lengthy, spoiler-heavy descriptions from popular movies and series. And two of Takeuchi’s “articles” — one about Godzilla Minus One and another focused on the Overlord anime adaptation — prompted Toho (owner of the Godzilla) and Kadokawa Shoten (the publisher behind Overlord) to file joint lawsuits through the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA).

The story is more complex than originally thought by the person who posted two short clips and had claimed to have received an anonymous email with the full movie.

Paramount has conducted an investigation into the incident. As part of the ongoing probe, the company eliminated the possibility that the leak was caused by a vulnerability in its systems, sources familiar with the situation tell The Hollywood Reporter. Clips of the movie on X are still being taken down through its copyright takedown process.

The leak has also resurfaced criticism of Paramount’s decision not to go ahead with a theatre release as an animated cinematic feature.

“Anyone watching the leak wouldn’t even be watching it on Paramount+ in the first place,” posted an account on 4Chan. “It literally makes no difference.”

Another praised the animation and said the movie “deserved to be in theaters.” They added of Paramount, “You fund animation like this, and you throw it on a dead platform without any fucking advertising? The leak is deserved.”

More background on the letter and who has signed it in this AP wire story running on CBC, among others.

A coalition of advocacy groups organized the letter, including the Committee for the First Amendment — a free speech group led by Jane Fonda — as well as the Democracy Defenders Fund and the Future Film Coalition. Other signatories include: Ben Stiller, Don Cheadle, Javier Bardem, Lily Gladstone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tiffany Haddish and Ted Danson.

Per the company, “Paramount will oversee direct development, creation and production of the Paramount Global Publishing books, with sales and distribution into the retail market to be handled by a yet-to-be-named partner.”

Paramount says it will continue its existing licensing strategy with publishers and distributors.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37879457

Likely a good signal towards an announcement of a third season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters in addition to the new Lee Shaw focused 1980s Cold War spinoff going into production this June.

Interestingly, the show does well in Apple’s own rankings everywhere globally other than English speaking Commonwealth countries and Ireland.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37818381

The Artemis NASA

mission has a mascot named Rise — a stuffy that acts as a zero-G indicator.

At a certain angle, it’s face looks a lot like a favourite bone-drinking horror called Moopsy.

Meanwhile, on Paramount’s news side, this is the Ellison vision — and some discussion from the Guardian about its viability.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37765690

This Salon feature from two weeks back provides a good overview of the 70+ year Godzilla franchise and its relevance to current audiences. There’s an analysis of where Monarch: Legacy of Monsters fits in the franchise’s themes.

Our relationship with Godzilla changes from movie to movie and age to age. Some films cast the King of the Monsters as a protector unconsciously joining humanity – and occasionally, King Kong – to fend off some mammoth existential evil. More often, he is a reckoning, reminding us of how puny we are in nature’s schemes...

…each springs from the same mutated DNA, mapping the source of Earth’s monster problems to mindless warfare, along with the intellectual vanity compelling man to seek an upper hand over nature instead of figuring out how to coexist.

Godzilla and the other Titans stampeding in his wake are post-World War II creations; Ishirō Honda, who directed the OG “Godzilla,” was a veteran of that war marked by his travel through the ruins of Hiroshima after the United States bombed its civilians and Nagasaki to force Japan’s surrender. The Geneva Conventions’ protocols made such acts illegal, but as we’re discovering with alarming frequency and force these days, laws are only as effective as our willingness to abide by them…

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37747581

An interesting and thorough reflection on how the original Godzilla (1954) was adapted to make Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956), with a framing story starring Raymond Burr, for the franchise’s introduction to American / English language audiences.

I hear Babylon 5 and The Expanse is nice, but I hear so little about those two shows I don't know what to expect of these stories.

live action as animated recommendation is allowed.

For those wondering about the $150 million lawsuit involving Jeff Shell — currently President of the merged Paramount but previously removed from his role as CEO at NBCUniversal in 2023 — THR has an in depth piece about R.J. Cipriani, the flamboyant FBI informant.

At his favorite corner table at the Venice restaurant Gjelina, Cipriani refers to himself as “a kamikaze,” “a lone wolf,” “a wild card” and “a fucking cowboy.” He drops names, cracks jokes, issues threats. On several occasions, he breaks into song. An observant Catholic, he says he’s recently been visiting his local church in Santa Monica multiple times a day to pray as he contends with “forces of evil,” adding, “I’m a soldier of God.”

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37577379

The first change.org petition to Renew “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” for a third season hit 30,000 signatures today, and is over 31,000 at the time of this post.

The one at the post link is the one launched from the UK with the regrettable, unofficial (likely AI) image. But it was up first and has been getting momentum.

There’s another one Renew Star Trek Starfleet Academy for a full season three, with the official key art poster that is about to break 5,000 signatures.

Between these two, Starfleet Academy now has more signatures than did Prodigy when Netflix picked up its second season.

Clearly this is causing consternation among some of those who have opposed the show from the outset. There are now opposing petitions Urge Paramount to shelve Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season two; Keep the Academy series permanently cancelled; and similar. None of these has significant traction.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37528189

An interesting analysis of GvK’s place in the industry’s recovery as the COVID-19 pandemic emergency wound down sufficiently that theatres reopened.

Godzilla vs. Kong eventually earned $470 million worldwide, making it a true, unqualified success. It was the first sign that en masse moviegoing could still exist in whatever our new normal would look like.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37518395

I already find this very exhausting, but in the interest of fairness, here we go.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37449530

The sigh from me is wondering why Andy Weir felt it necessary to use a platform like ‘criticaldrinker’ to go out of his way to trash recent Star Trek.

“They didn’t accept my pitch so fuck em,” doesn’t really sell me on putting my dollars and eyeballs towards the success of his movie — no matter a great performance by Ryan Gosling or great production values.

Rather tells me why all Weir’s heros are lone-guy-saves-all-on-his-own tropes.

Quoting Weir in the interview:

Later, Marsden brought up the divisive Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which Paramount+ recently confirmed will end after its already-shot second season.

“I think we can probably safely never talk about it again,” Marsden quipped. 

“It’s gone baby!” Weir cheerfully agreed. “It’s all gone.” 

Marsden said his advice to Paramount is to de-canonize everything Star Trek from Enterprise onward.

“Okay, you’re a little more severe than I am,” Weir said. “I’ll give you my opinion and I’m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks I thought was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go. And here’s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman]. I don’t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. But they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, fuck ’em.”

ReFrame, the gender equity coalition founded in 2017 by Sundance Institute and WIF (formerly Women in Film), has issued a new study spotlighting a reversal of gender-balanced hiring in film in 2025…

…Progress for directors peaked in 2023, with 20 women and nonbinary directors represented in the Top 100 films. With regard to lead roles, inclusion peaked in 2024, when there were 51 women, including one transgender performer, cited. In 2025, only 11 women directors and just seven women of color in lead roles were represented on IMDbPro’s Top 100 list. There was zero inclusion of transgender or nonbinary individuals as directors or in lead roles.